


To Protect and Serve

by celeste9



Category: Final Fantasy Tactics
Genre: Courtly Love, Devotion, F/F, Missing Scene, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 05:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1806193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Every princess should have a brave knight, or so they say in the stories. Isn't that true?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Protect and Serve

**Author's Note:**

> Written for smallfandomfest for the prompt: Agrias/Ovelia, to protect and serve, until the end. Set after the Zirekile Falls event.

Ovelia splashed water onto her face, rubbing away the traces of mud. Her cheeks looked pink and damp when she sat back, remaining by the side of the stream. “I must look a fright,” she said.

“No, Princess,” Agrias said immediately, though in all honesty she had never before seen Ovelia in such a state. Strands of hair had fallen loose from her braids and her dress was frayed and dirty, the hem sodden.

The sound of Ovelia’s laughter was a welcome familiarity, warm and musical. “You lie, Agrias, I look terrible. But I thank you all the same for humoring me.” She pulled one of her heavy braids over her shoulder and began loosening it, letting her hair go free.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Agrias asked, watching her.

Ovelia’s smile was gentle and amused. “You can stop asking me that. My answer will always be the same-- I’m fine. I promise. Delita would never have harmed me.”

Agrias felt a flush rise in her cheeks to match the anger brought on by the mention of that miscreant. “He broke into the monastery to steal you! He hit you! And then he dragged you away.” The memory of it remained painful. It had been her worst failure. Agrias vowed it would remain so, for she would never be so useless again.

“He was protecting me.”

“So he said.”

“You do not believe him?”

“He kidnapped you, Princess. I find it hard to trust the word of a man who would stoop to such a base action.”

“He thought it was the right thing to do,” Ovelia said softly, gazing into the distance. “He wishes for me to safe-- and to be free. Is that not what you wish for, Agrias?”

Agrias bit her tongue hard enough to feel the sting. “I wish for everything that is good for you, Princess. I always have.”

The breeze was ruffling Ovelia’s long hair, causing it to flutter about her face. “I know.”

They remained silent. Agrias looked towards the camp, to where Ramza and the others were waiting. She knew there was safety in numbers and that she should bring Ovelia back to them soon, but she couldn’t help but treasure these few precious moments alone with the princess. The princess was safest with Agrias and Agrias alone, she had to be. Agrias needed to believe that was true, that she would not be fooled again.

She would die before she let Ovelia come to harm.

“You have your solemn face on again.”

“What?” Agrias said, startled. She had not meant to become so lost in her thoughts. How could she protect the princess if she was off in her own head?

“Your solemn face,” Ovelia said, teasing. “You need not put it on for me. Are you not my friend as well as my protector, Agrias?”

Agrias inclined her head. “It is kind of you to think of me that way.”

Ovelia climbed to her feet, her hair still hanging unbound around her shoulders. She was beautiful. “I had hoped that you felt comfortable enough with me to speak openly.” Ovelia’s fingers twitched at her side, as if she wanted to clench her fist but was resisting such a nervous gesture. “So few do.”

“Forgive me. I did not wish to presume, that’s all.”

Stepping yet closer, Ovelia said, “But I wish for you to presume, don’t you see? Please. Say that you care for me as much as I care for you.”

Agrias stiffened, keeping her back straight as a pole. If Ovelia only knew how much Agrias truly cared for her, she would send Agrias away for certain. It was not proper, it was not - Ovelia was a princess, and one day she might be the queen of Ivalice. Agrias was nothing. “I hope you know that I care for you a great deal, Princess.”

Ovelia’s features softened with happiness. “It cheers me to hear you say so. That is why you are so upset by Delita, isn’t it? Because you were worried for me. Not because you are sworn to my protection-- or not entirely, at the least, but because you are my friend and you did not wish to see me harmed.”

“I would die first,” Agrias said, too fervently, far too fervently.

Ovelia’s smile was wide and joyous. “Let us both pray it never comes to that. I trust you more than any man in this world, you know.”

“I have always tried to give you my best.”

“Yes, always. Your best is more than anyone could ask for. Delita…” Ovelia paused, seemingly to sort out her thoughts. “I believe he was telling me the truth, that he wanted only what was best for me. However, he was wrong.”

Agrias agreed entirely with that last statement. Delita had been wrong about everything, but most certainly he had been wrong to ever think he could steal Ovelia from her. “What was he wrong about?”

“That I would ever be safer with him than I am with you,” Ovelia said, laying her hand upon Agrias’ arm.

Ovelia’s touch seemed to burn through the layers separating them until it felt as though surely her fingers would be branded on Agrias’ skin. “I will serve you, Princess, in whatever way you wish me to. I will protect you with my dying breath and I will be with you however you need me, this I promise.”

Ovelia’s light eyes seemed to shine. “You are still so solemn, but I like that about you. My solemn, serious Agrias, my brave knight. Every princess should have a brave knight, or so they say in the stories. Isn’t that true?”

“Yes,” Agrias said, and thought that she would never be happier than she was here, in this moment. She was dirty and weary and Ovelia looked more like a disheveled traveler than the princess she was, but the sun was shining and they were together.

Agrias did not know what would come. She did not know where their road would lead, and she feared that there was hardship and strife ahead of them. She feared that Ovelia would not have much cause to smile for a long time yet.

All this was true but Agrias still felt light of heart. Ovelia was her princess and Agrias would be her knight, ready to serve and protect in whatever way was necessary.

Until the end, however it came.

**_End_ **


End file.
